Archive for April, 2016

Earlier in the week, some friends and I managed to catch Hardcore Henry on the last night of its theatrical run. No one else was in the theater with us, giving us free reign to whoop and holler while the movie was playing. This turned out to be fortunate, because this movie was so over-the-top, so absolutely insane in its first-person action scenes, that keeping quiet would have been an exercise in futility anyway.

Needless to say, we absolutely loved it.

Of course, being a nerd of considerable proportions, I can’t think of impressive or interesting characters from fiction without wanting to quantify what they can do. Since role-playing games in general – and Eclipse: The Codex Persona in particular – are the best ways of doing that, I naturally wrote up stats for the movie’s titular protagonist. (Some mild spoilers for the film are below.)

Hardcore Henry, ECL 5 Implacable Hero

Cyber-Soldier (63 CP/+1 ECL race)

+4 Str (24 CP).

+4 Dex (24 CP).

+4 Con (24 CP).

Bonus Feat (6 CP).

Fast Learner, specialized for half-cost/skills only (3 CP).

Speak Language and Read/Write Language (2 CP).

Immunity/Endurance (common/minor/major) (2 CP).

+1 BAB (6 CP).

Proficient with all simple and martial weapons (9 CP) and small arms (6 CP).

Martial Arts (3 CP).

+1 AC (dodge bonus) (6 CP).

1d10 Hit Die (14 CP).

This entire race is specialized for one-halt cost/need to have a charged power cell without which they can only function for a half-hour before dying, can have their brain hacked to block or implant memories as well as upload malware into systems they connect to, have their cyborg nature revealed on mechanical scans or if they take sufficient damage (e.g. half their hit points or more).

The use of Speak Language and Read/Write Language here is to explain why, when the characters speak Russian, we see subtitles in a movie that’s entirely from Henry’s point of view – he’s actually seeing those subtitles! If not using the d20 Modern skills, go ahead and remove the Read/Write Language listing; it won’t actually change the net CP total for this race.

Henry’s disadvantages are Accursed (Henry cannot speak, never having received his voice modulator), History (presumably there’s a backstory for how Henry ended up where he was at the beginning of the movie), and Hunted (the course of events in the film pretty much define this disadvantage).

Ability Scores (32-point buy)

Ability Score

Base

Racial Bonus

Level Bonus

Total

Strength

14 (6 points)

+4

—

18 (+4)

Dexterity

16 (10 points)

+4

—

20 (+5)

Constitution

15 (8 points)

+4

+1 (4th level)

20 (+5)

Intelligence

12 (4 points)

—

—

12 (+1)

Wisdom

10 (2 points)

—

—

10 (+0)

Charisma

10 (2 points)

—

—

10 (+0)

Unlike most d20 Modern characters, Henry receives a 32-point buy instead of the usual 25. This is because he’s just that hardcore, going through a very tough adventure solo (save for a recurring NPC helping out).

Basic Abilities (99 CP)

4d10 Hit Dice (24 CP).

+4 BAB (24 CP).

Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +1 (27 CP).

24 skill points (24 CP).

Superhuman Determination (15 CP)

Acrobatics (6 CP).

Action Hero/Stunts (6 CP).

Reflex Training/when a ranged weapon runs out of ammunition, specialized for one-half cost/may only take a move action, only to reload (3 CP).

The use of Action Points over the course of the film is likely to be extremely high. Henry is doubtlessly buying multiple instances of Luck, Grant of Aid, Block, etc.

Henry’s class skills are the twelve skills on the above table which have their ranks bought at a 1:1 skill points. The others are cross-class skills.

Other than noting his racial ability to strike for 1d4 + Str bonus points of lethal damage, the above listing doesn’t go into what weapons Henry typically uses. That’s because he changes them quite rapidly over the course of the film, using pistols, automatic rifles, shotguns, a katana, a grenade launcher, and quite a bit more over the course of the movie!

Further Development

Henry’s stats match his depiction in the movie, being a character with incredible physical abilities but very little else. Given that he actually managed to survive the film, and utterly annihilate the bad guys who were gunning for him, Henry might be able to focus on some non-combat abilities going forward.

Several years ago, I wrote a brief series of articles about removing alignment-based mechanics from Pathfinder, focusing specifically on the Core classes, spells and magic items, and monsters. Since then, these posts have become some of the most popular parts of Intelligence Check, getting regular hits even after all of this time.

It’s because of that that I’m a little chagrined to have only recently realized that there’s an area of the Pathfinder Core Rules that I overlooked in my original series: the prestige classes found in the Core Rulebook.

Of course, the fact that no one ever bothered to point this out to me says, I think, something about how prestige classes are viewed these days. Even back during the heyday of 3.X, most prestige classes tended to be regarded with suspicion – at least insofar as their balance went – and a vague sense of frustration for how they seemed to nod in the direction of in-game story potential even as they were typically used for purely mechanical purposes.

Throw in the issues that come along with multiclassing, and it’s easy to see why archetypes – as introduced in the Pathfinder’s first major splatbook, the Advanced Player’s Guide – quickly replaced prestige classes as the go-to for how to customize your character (besides feats, races, etc.). But that doesn’t mean that they’ve gone away entirely. Should someone want to make use of a prestige class, whether for the mechanics or the story potential or both, the basic PrCs are right there in the Core Rules.

Now let’s see what they look like shorn of alignment.

Core Prestige Classes

Below are the changes necessary to remove alignment-based mechanics from the prestige classes in the Core Rulebook. Those PrCs that aren’t listed here have no such mechanics, and so require no changes.

Arcane Archer: Delete the “enhance arrows” ability gained at 9th level, replacing it with the following:

“At 9th level, every nonmagical arrow fired by an arcane archer gains the keen and bane weapon qualities. The keen quality functions even if the arcane archer fires arrows that deal bludgeoning damage. The creature type to which the bane quality applies may be changed once per day as per the arcane archer’s elemental and elemental burst qualities.”

The goal here is to grant the arcane archer a total of +2 weapon qualities to replace the alignment qualities he’s losing. Bane is the obvious choice to replace alignment-based additional damage, and since this narrows the range of foes that will be subject to extra damage, we can ameliorate this (at least somewhat) by adding in keen as well (along with a note so that the arcane archer isn’t penalized if using blunt arrows).

Arcane Trickster: Delete the alignment requirement for this prestige class.

Honestly, this particular restriction is so flimsy I’m surprised that it’s there at all. If rogues can be lawful, and wizards and sorcerers can be lawful, then why exactly can’t a rogue-wizard mashup be lawful? As such, we can get rid of this requirement without a second thought.

Assassin: Delete the alignment requirement for this prestige class.

You have to admire this particular restriction, as it managed to tick off both the story-gamers (who wanted to roleplay being a professional contract killer) and the power-gamers (who wanted the death attack power this PrC offered) by requiring an alignment that most GMs disallowed as a matter of course.

Shadowdancer: Change the second sentence of the “summon shadow” description to read as follows:

“Unlike a normal shadow, this shadow cannot create spawn.”

This removes the clause about the shadow having the shadowdancer’s alignment, which while a minor change (particularly with the removal of all other alignment-based effects), might still be significant if you want to place more emphasis on the shadowdancer having an undead familiar like this.

Conclusion

There wasn’t much to change here, but hopefully these alterations will be worthwhile if you’re looking at taking a Core prestige class in an alignment-free game. After all, why can’t the good guys have assassins too?

Thaumaturgy (and dweomer, its statistically-identical discipline) is one of several new d20 magic systems introduced in Eclipse: The Codex Persona (pg. 100-106). More specifically, it’s one of the magic systems that’s based around skills, giving that particular d20 subsystem some much-needed teeth.

In thaumaturgy, a particular magical discipline is divided into eight sub-disciplines, each of which has its own associated skill. If a practitioner of that style of magic wants to create an effect, then he has a make a successful skill check with the relevant sub-discipline (and pay the associated cost), and on a success the spell is cast.

There’s actually a bit more to it than that, but that’s the basic outline of how the system works.

The best part of this style of magic (at least to me) is that coming up with the eight associated skills for each particular discipline is something the player does. That means that each player is likely to come up with a different set of particulars, so that even the same theme will have different particulars depending on who uses it. Between that and that the effects generated are free-form, this means that no two users of thaumaturgy will be alike.

To whit, below is a sample field of thaumaturgy, based around a particular type of enchantment.

Enchantment

Manipulating emotions is a particularly insidious way of controlling others. Rather than subverting someone’s will, enchantments change how they feel about things while leaving their responses intact. The results can often be profoundly confusing, if not disturbing, for the victim long after the actual effect has ended. Wielding such invasive magic can come with a high price, however; few people can bring themselves to fully trust someone who can tamper with the most intimate parts of them.

Anger: Creating not only surges of adrenaline-fueled rage, this magic can also induce lasting hatreds and deep enmities. This can also curse an individual or location to become an object of scorn for certain groups, or even – at high levels – for everyone.

Anticipation: The opposite of surprise, anticipation causes something to seem to be more noteworthy than it otherwise would be. Not only can this boost situational awareness, granting combat bonuses and tactical insights, but it can be used to grant insight into mysteries and dilemmas that have no obvious solutions.

Apathy: Not just boredom, apathy can be the complete lack of an emotional response. It can negate most emotion-based magic, as well as shield from pain or alignment-based effects. At the higher levels, this can be used to induce catatonia or hibernation.

Fear: Not just immediate panic, this type of magic can produce anything from low-grade anxiety to bouts of fear so strong as to be lethal. This magic is often placed on an area, causing it to be avoided by the locals.

Joy: Bringing forth happiness can not only counter fear and despair, but also creates powerful bravery and morale-boosting effects. This particular field of magic can become highly addictive to those that are regularly subjected to it.

Love: This creates any sort of positive fascination. It can range from basic charm effects to powerful obsessions. Ironically, actual love is very difficult to create, and tends to be short-term.

Sadness: Feelings of loss can be used to sap a person’s will to fight, saddling them with morale penalties or even forfeiting actions as they lose the will to carry on. Severe sadness effects can cause a target to become suicidal.

Surprise: Surprise deals with being unaware of something, resulting in penalties to reactions. This can also be used to make parts of the immediate area seem subconsciously “unimportant” to the point of being unnoticed, while stronger spells make it so that key connections and revelations are overlooked or ignored.

As with all free-form systems of magic, what’s above are merely suggestions. The ultimate arbitrators of what can be used with any particular system of magic are the player’s imagination and the GM’s administration.